Magical Underpinnings of Reality: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
In [[Fantasy]] settings magic and the mythic creatures are not abnormal, but a natural part of the world. It's normal to see wizards, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of love, and even weirder fare sit down every third tuesday for tea and biscuits (baked by [[Our Elves Are Better|tree elves]], of course). Many things that are explained by physics in [[Real Life]] may even have completely different explanations in this world, such as [[The Grim Reaper]] going about ending lives ([[Don't Fear the Reaper|not necessarily killing, mind you)]], that fires are actually small (or enormous) imp-like beings, or that there are [[Nature Spirit
Then there's settings that take it [[Up to Eleven]]. In a world where there are
In short, most or even all the natural world works thanks to magical means. In a weird twist, they may even use industrial or scientific methods like worker shifts of gnomes who [[Painting the Frost on Windows|paint the leaves for fall]], or machines that manufacture clouds. If this doesn't jive with science as we know it, there may be a [[Masquerade]], or the magical aspect is only obvious in the [[Magic Land]] or [[Spirit World]] dimension parallel to the mundane world, but is no less important to the natural world. Some stories have the
Essentially, [[Painting the Frost on Windows|everyone paints frost on the windows.]]
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** However, Earth is the only world on the Tree which has a Prosaic Reality. Mythic Reality is the default everywhere else.
** Being made forcibly aware of these magical underpinnings tends to drive mortals '''insane''' -- ''Earth itself'' couldn't deal with the knowledge of a world in which the capricious whim of a god can wipe out the dominant lifeforms on the planet or transport rabbits from their peaceful undersea homes to the world of land, so it's not surprising that mere mortals can't, either. In 3e, the Locust Court allows victims to forget this knowledge and regain their sanity, if they can find it. Otherwise, those who can't learn to cope with the knowledge on their own are basically doomed to living with a view of the world that's ''accurate'', but not rational or functional, and which causes them to (rightly) be considered insane by their peers.
* ''[[Exalted]]'' has everything -- ''everything''
** Unusually for this trope, the Magical Underpinnings Of Reality take up a managerial role. If you kill or traumatize the god of a
* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' has it so that this is how Arcadia works. Every thing is a sentient force that requires you to make a Contract with it in order to gain its benefits. For instance, you need to make a Contract with Water in order to quench your thirst, though it can still drown you even if you haven't signed on. [[The Fair Folk|The Gentry]] gain most of their magic by forging these Contracts with the forces that technically hold the keys, and their changeling servants gain mastery of them by proxy.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' has the Moddey-Dhoo mentioning that [[Psychopomp
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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